Posts Tagged ‘wordpress’

WordPress Book Plugins for Book Bloggers

May 9 |08:00

With a ton of book bloggers transitioning to WordPress (yay!), I thought a post about the best book plugins would be timely and helpful. I’ve been on WordPress since the start of my blog (March 2011-ish), and I think this platform is 1. SEO-friendly, 2. easy to use and 3. robust and sustainable.

there's a plugin for that read breathe relax feature

There’s a Plugin for That is an original Read.Breathe.Relax feature that highlights different WordPress plugin’s that are useful for book bloggers. Pros and cons are listed as well as insider tips.


Book Plugins for WordPress

Book-Related Plugins:

  • OpenBook Book Data- This plugin allows you to display a book’s cover, title, author and related links using a customizable template. It seems like a fancy way of doing what we already do. This plugin just helps for things to look consistent throughout posts.

  • Bookturner- Bookturner pulls in your information from Goodreads to create a fun sidebar widget. Although Goodreads offers their own widget, this plugin allows you to customize the number of books displayed, sort the list by author, title (etc.) and set how often the widget is updated.

  • Now Reading Reloaded- Display what books your currently reading using this plugin to create a sidebar widget. The cover art is pulled automatically from Amazon.

  • WordPress Amazon Associate- Put your Amazon Affiliate account to good use and use the widgets offered in this plugin to help monetize your blog.

  • My Library- This is another version of the Currently Reading plugin, but My Library enables you to display a number of books with your rating AND an Amazon Affiliate link. The best of both worlds.

Plugins for WordPress Beginners:

I love ProBlogger’s tips and tricks, and his post on this topic is extensive. I shared my five favorites from his list below.

  • WPTouch- This is a mobile site plugin that I’ve talked about before, and it’s really, really important. So many people surf the internet on their phones, so making your blog mobile-accessible is key. This plugin is easy to install and creates a mobile site for your blog in minutes!

  • Editorial Calendar- This plugin allows users to schedule posts in the future and shows them a visual representation of their posts in a calendar display. You can see if your week is full or if you’re missing a post. It’s perfect for book bloggers who schedule reviews far in advance.

  • Blogging Checklist- Create a checklist for yourself of all the needed steps you need to take before you click “Publish.” This is especially great if you blog with multiple authors, and you all need to be on the same page about your posts.

  • Social Sharing Toolkit- Offer your readers a chance to share your content directly from the post. Buttons will appear on your posts for the social media channels you select.

  • SEO Auto Linker- If there’s one thing I think book bloggers could do A LOT better is internal linking. This plugin automatically finds key words or phrases to link to within a blog post. A-mazing!

What WordPress book plugins do you use that make blogging easier?

 
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There’s a Plugin for That – WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

Jan 27 |09:07

For all your organizational freaks out there, the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin is perfect for scheduling posts in the future and making sure your upcoming week or months is filled up.

“There’s a Plugin for That” is a new, original blog feature on Read.Breathe.Relax. It will feature different plugin’s that are useful for book bloggers (who use WordPress) and the pros and cons.

WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

calendar plugin editorial calendar wordpress

Above is a screen shot of the editorial calendar plugin. It’s basically a scroll-able monthly calendar that you can drag and drop drafted posts into specific days. Or if you have already scheduled a bunch of posts, you can see them displayed on the calendar all nice and pretty.

How I use the calendar is to 1. Plan ahead and visually see what’s coming up, which really helps me get a handle on what’s coming up and 2. While viewing the calendar, you can hover over posts and create drafts or edit posts that are scheduled already. SO NICE!

Other features of the calendar plugin are:

  • See all of your posts and when they’ll be posted.
  • Drag and drop to change your post dates.
  • Quickedit post titles, contents, and times.
  • Publish posts or manage drafts.
  • Easily see the status of your posts.
  • Manage posts from multiple authors.

Download the Editorial Calendar Plugin

To try out the calendar plugin for yourself, just follow these easy steps:

  • Login in to WordPress. Click the Plugins menu on the left sidebar
  • Click “Add New” at the top of the page
  • Search for “editorial-calendar”
  • Find the matching plugin (it should be the first result in the list)
  • Click “Install Now”
  • Next click “Activate Plugin”
  • The plugin has been successfully installed. To change any of the settings, go to the “Settings” section on the left-hand sidebar and click “editorial-plugin”

Besides this calendar plugin, what WordPress plugins help you stay organized?

 
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Warning: Google Friend Connect Numbers Are Wrong

Dec 27 |08:00

In November, word spread quickly from Google’s blog that Google Friend Connect will be discontinued on March 1, 2012, on all non-Blogger content management systems. Panic ensued.

In the light of this change, I’m here to tell you why GFC numbers don’t mean exactly what you think they mean and how your blog can still prosper without it.

Google Friend Connect is Not Your Friend

google friend connect is not your friend

Just replace "Anonymous" with GFC ;)

Well, it’s not really that GFC is at fault in any of this – it’s just a tool designed for Blogger that makes following blogs easier. The problem arises when bloggers use this tool to measure their followers. Because Google Friend Connect numbers don’t mean what you think they do.

For example: Have you ever entered to win a book on a blog that required you to follow it using Google Friend Connect in order to enter? Have you done this and then never visited the blog again?

Or have you seen blogs literally double their followers after a huge giveaway and wonder how they gained so many devoted fans so quickly?

Or have you participated in memes designed with the sole aim of getting people to follow your blog to “gain followers?”

Do you see where I’m going with this? Many bloggers’ GFC numbers are inflated and don’t accurately represent their true fan base. Plus, it’s a way to compare your blog with someone else’s and potentially feel 1. discouraged 2. envious and 3. anxious to gain more followers yourself. (Don’t feel bad about that last one, I’ve been there too).

Why Pageviews and Comments Matter More

So if Google Friend Connect numbers can be bloated, then what’s the real measure of a blog’s stats? It’s pageviews and comments.

Using the Google Analytics tool will give you an realistic number of how many people visit your blog over time. It can help you track the number of blogs linking to your site (the blog community) and the number of people finding your blog via search engines (non-blog community).

Pageviews and blog comments matter more because they directly impact your blog and they carry just as much weight (if not more) than Google Friend Connect.

Grow Your Blog Without Google Friend Connect

As a new blogger, I was advised by those in book blogging forums to add the GFC widget to my blog immediately or else no one would know how to follow my blog. This is a huge misconception. A ton of book bloggers use Blogger, however a whole host of other websites use other content management systems.

For exaple, 69 million websites use WordPress as their CMS. All of these sites will not magically lose their followers when Google Friend Connect is retired, and neither will you.

Before GFC is canned, instruct your readers to:

  • Follow your blog in Google Reader
  • Subscribe via email (super convenient)
  • “Plus 1″ your blog posts (you can even add a Plus 1 button in your sidebar)
  • Like your blog’s Facebook fan page
  • Follow you on Twitter

As a blogger, continue to:

  • Participate in community memes like Top Ten Tuesday and In My Mailbox
  • Comment on blogs in your niche like YA, fantasy, paranormal, etc.
  • Post quality content original to your blog
  • Be passionate about blogging – it always shines through

Plus, you can generate more traffic to your blog by applying Search Engine Optimization techniques, which are ways to increase how often your blog posts appear in Google searches.

Not sure how to do that? Read Google’s free SEO Starter’s Guide. This will help non-bloggers find your pages when searching for books and reviews.

I don’t know everything there is to know about blogging, analytics or SEO, but I hope I provided some insight into why GFC isn’t the end-all-be-all of blogging tools and especially that your blog can survive with out it.

How important do you think GFC is? Has Google Friend Connect affected how you blog or how you perceive other blogs?

 
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There’s a Plugin for That: Mobile Site Plugin

Dec 26 |14:12

As many of you know, people are accessing the Web on the go more and more - that’s why I think you should install a mobile site plugin on your blog.

To back up a bit, “There’s a Plugin for That” is a new, original blog feature on Read.Breathe.Relax. I’ll talk about the different plugin’s available for book bloggers who use WordPress and include step-by-step instructions of how to install them.

I don’t mean to leave out those of you who use Blogger, but WordPress offers tons of features that I’m familiar with because I use that platform. If you have any questions about using WordPress, please feel free to leave a question for me in the comments or email me here: lisa [at] readbreatherelax [dot] com.

Mobile Site Plugin – Whys and Hows

Back to mobile site plugins…


The Whys

Like I mentioned earlier, people who have smartphones, iPads (jealous!) and Kindle Fires (even more jealous) are using the Web and hopefully visiting your blog. Make visiting your blog an easier experience = faster loading + easy navigation.

That’s were a mobile site comes in. For those of you who don’t know what a mobile site is, by the way, it is a “website optimized for viewing in a mobile browser.” You may be thinking, “Well, great – do I need to know how to code or something else equally as complicated??”

No, no you don’t. WordPress has made your life easier by offering tons of plugins that, once installed, make your blog mobile-ready with a few clicks.

The Hows

The mobile site plugin I use on my blog is WPTouch . It had a ton of great reviews and an overall rating of 4 stars (out of five). You can view that information here.

Here’s a Step-By-Step Guide to Install the Plugin:

  1. Login in to WordPress. Click the Plugins menu on the left sidebar
  2. Click “Add New” at the top of the page
  3. Search for “WPTouch”
  4. Find the matching plugin (it should be the first result in the list)
  5. Click “Install Now”
  6. Next click “Activate Plugin”
  7. The plugin has been successfully installed. To change any of the settings, go to the “Settings” section on the left-hand sidebar and click “WPTouch”
  8. For additional settings, go to “Reading” under “Settings” to adjust the number of posts shown on your mobile site

If you have any troubles with the plugin (like it breaking your site), simply go back to the “Plugins” setting on the left sidebar, scroll down till you see “WPTouch” and click “Deactivate.” …I’ve had to do that many-a-time. :)

If you have any questions, please let me know. I hope none of you have any trouble installing the mobile site plugin and that it works great for you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
 
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